Our feature today is an atmospheric, moody, little pot-boiler by American International Pictures based on -- what else -- a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. A story of a young sailor falling under the spell of a displaced mermaid -- maybe she is, maybe she isn't -- who while under the influence of the moon tides must fight off her bloodlust against the ones she loves. Will true love win out? Or will she return to her own kind? Two have already died. Will there be a third? (...This one's for you, Cliffie!)

Young sailor Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper), is enjoying his first liberty by exploring the sights and attractions along the boardwalk of the local Amusement Pier. Following his nose into a bar, where a jazz combo is cutting a mean groove (and a sample of the film's quality is the music in here is actually pretty good), Johnny gets a beer and searches the bar patrons, perhaps looking for another lonely soul to spend the evening with. He spots a girl, bobbing to the music, and takes a chance. Using the awkward approach, that proves to be genuine (-- not a come on), Johnny takes a seat at her table. He tries to make small talk but the girl is more interested in the music -- until she spots an older woman, dressed in black, spying on them. 

The old bird approaches, says something in a foreign tongue that the girl understands, and this encounter spooks the girl so much that she abruptly leaves, leaving the bewildered Johnny behind. But he goes after her, under the hateful gaze of the old witch. When he catches up to the girl, swearing he only wants to escort her home, it being so late at night and all, she agrees. They walk on until they reach her apartment, that's located above the pier's giant Merry-Go-Round. Johnny thinks it's an odd place to live but the girl claims to find the music soothing. (Frankly, that calliope music would make me stark raving bonkers.) Totally smitten, shy Johnny is finally brave enough to ask her name. Her name is Mora (Linda Lawson), and with that revelation, he steals a kiss. Mora is taken a back at first but agrees to see him again. They arrange to meet, there, for a late breakfast tomorrow, and she finally manages a smile before he leaves.

Our boy arrives early the next morning, just as the Merry-Go-Round is opening up for the day. He meets the owner (Tom Dillon) and his plucky daughter (Luana Anders). Mentioning he's there to meet Mora, the proprietors quickly turn suspicious at the mere mention of her name. Johnny moves on, with no real explanation, to Mora's apartment that's definitely got an under-the-sea motif going. She's made breakfast for them, fresh mackerel (?), and they eat it out on the balcony. Mora goes on about the delicacies of the sea -- something a Colorado boy knows little about but would love to learn. They exchange life stories: Johnny is an orphan who joined the Navy to see the world; Mora is a little more cryptic saying she is a mermaid by trade in one of the sideshows on the Amusement Pier. In fact, she has to work today. She explains to Johnny how she does it, through trickery, with a fake tank (and there's another illusion shattered. First wrestling, and now this.) While Johnny is anxious to see her in her costume, their breakfast is suddenly interrupted by several low altitude seagulls, one of which lands in front of Nora, who cradles the wild sea bird to her breast.

They head to the pier and the "Mora the Mermaid" stand, and find the proprietor, Captain Sam Murdoch (Gavin Muir) -- an old salt who puts the yo-ho-ho in the bottle of rum, if you know what I mean -- asleep at the barker's stand. While Mora leaves to get ready, Murdoch, a retired Royal Navy man, wants to swap sea stories with Johnny. He's disappointed when Johnny doesn't have any, and when the younger sailor asks him about Mora, Murdoch says he found her on an island. Before he can say more, Mora calls from the inside saying she's ready. (That was quick. Too quick?) Murdoch is then bit by the cryptic bug; but invites Johnny to his house later, promising to finish the "unusual" story of Mora's origin then.

Johnny heads inside into a small darkened room, that is empty except for a large tank. The only light source is coming from a small skylight and the illuminated tank. When Johnny approaches it and peers inside, through the water, he can see Mora, lounging on the aquarium floor, casually stroking her hair.

When Johnny's next weekend pass rolls around, he and Mora head to the beach where they have a picnic. Mora wants to go swimming, but Johnny says they have to wait at least a half-hour for their food to digest. Mora's never heard that tip before; she's never had any trouble in the water. (Cue ominous sting!) The subject switches to Captain Murdoch. Johnny wants to know what their relationship is. Mora claims he's just an old friend -- her only friend. But Johnny asks What about him? Mora grows afraid, not wanting to admit they're growing close, for some reason, and asks if Murdoch said anything strange about her. Johnny assures her he didn't. Mora regroups and says Murdoch found her, orphaned, on the Greek Isle of Mikolos. He adopted her, became her guardian, and she joined him in his world travels until they eventually settled here. Then Mora gets even more cryptic when she talks about her longing for the sea. She is drawn to it -- yet terrified of it at the same time. Johnny admits "We're all afraid of what we love." And with that statement, the two embrace and go for a roll in the sand.

Later, the two are drawn to a raucous beach party. When the bongo player asks Mora to dance for them, she appears to be possessed by the beat. But her frenzied act ends when she spots the old woman again, and this immediately causes Mora to collapse. Johnny helps her. He saw the old woman, too, but she's mysteriously disappeared.

The next morning, Johnny goes to visit Mora but is intercepted by the Merry-Go-Rounders, who invite him in for some coffee. They have another guest, Madame Monosomethingorother (Marjorie Eaton), a fortune teller from up the pier, who invites Johnny to come and have his future read. Then another guest joins them, a police detective, and our story gets even murkier and murkier. The others praise the detective for not giving up and ask if any new clues have surfaced. They finally clue Johnny (and us) in that Mora's last two boyfriends both died under mysterious circumstances; both disappeared, but eventually washed up on shore. Johnny can't believe that Mora would have anything to do with it.

The phone rings. It's for Johnny, which is odd because no one knows he's there. (Damn telemarketers.) But when he takes the receiver, no one is there. He spies the old woman and gives chase. But every time Johnny almost catches up to her, the old bird magically winds up about twenty yards ahead of him again. Once more he catches up, rounds a corner, but the woman has disappeared -- again. However, by coincidence, by machination, or dumb luck, Johnny's chase lands him at the door of Captain Murdoch's home. When Murdoch invites him in, Johnny marvels at all the treasures and oddities he picked up during his travels, including the severed hand of an Arab thief. Knick-knacks aside, Johnny really wants that promised story about Mora. Murdoch is very blunt, and warns Johnny that he is in grave danger and must break off the relationship as soon as possible. When Johnny gets defensive, Murdoch says the danger's not from him -- it's from Mora. He warns that she will eventually be overcome with a compulsion to kill him. Thinking Murdoch is drunk and overprotective of his daughter, the old salt continues, talking about the myths of the Sirens who lured sailors to their doom with their beauty and voice. Murdoch spews ironically that his sideshow is the perfect place to hide Mora; in plain sight. He rants on, claiming he didn't know what she was, or was to become, when he found her; a monster. Then, Murdoch babbles about an ancient race from the sea who are after her, wanting to bring Mora home. The quarter drops, and Johnny asks Murdoch about the mystery woman in black. He denies knowing the woman, and then all the booze finally catches up to him and Murdoch passes out.

Confronting Mora with all he's heard that day, the girl doesn't deny any of it and she didn't tell him fearing he would leave her. Johnny assures her that he believes none of it and will stick by her. Mora is envious of Johnny's wide-eyed naiveté; but she's convinced the old woman is one of the sea people, sent to bring her back. She feels the seawater in her veins, and the changing tides pull at her -- especially on the nights of the full moon. Mora is torn; the sea calls to her, but she's been on land too long and doesn't want to leave Johnny. He promises that, together, things will work out.

After Mora goes to work, Johnny visits Madame Monowhatshername and the clairvoyant makes things even more complicated when she reads the Tarot for him. She emphasizes the moon card, with the crab that tries to crawl out of the water only to fail. When he asks about Mora, Madame Morowhattheheckareyoutalkingabout says she is caught up in a "vortex of evil" but warns Johnny that he's the one in real danger. Johnny doesn't know what to do, but the fortune teller says the answer lies in your heart (and that'll be two dollars.)

Later, Johnny returns to Mora's apartment. She's just gotten in the tub, so he stretches out on the couch. He closes his eyes ,and when he opens them, Mora is there, soaking wet, in a bathrobe. She approaches and they embrace. They kiss, but then Johnny notices Mora has a tail! And her hands have turned into tentacles! Johnny screams as the monster envelopes and strangles him...

But it was all a dream. When Johnny wakes up, Mora is gone. Following her wet footprints outside to the beach, he calls to her. She answers from underneath the pier. The tide is coming in and he spies her by the pylons, with the surf crashing dangerously around her. Johnny rescues her and takes her back inside where she sobs that the siren call of the sea is getting stronger and she can't resist for much longer.

So Johnny goes AWOL to stay and protect her. His trepidation has her worried, so she sends him to a local masseuse to ease up. And while Johnny gets a rubdown, Murdoch winds up being the next in line. He asks if Mora is acting odd and warns Johnny to be careful, the full moon will be out tonight, and reiterates that he should never see her again. Upon his return, Johnny finds Mora in good spirits, convinced that she was just sleepwalking the night before, and agreeing that Johnny's been right all along and that all the sea people nonsense is just that -- nonsense. She's in the process of cleaning up her diving equipment, wanting to take Johnny on a dive to her favorite spot and then ominously states that conditions are perfect -- the full moon tide is just right. Recalling Murdoch's warning, Johnny makes up all kinds of excuses. (Is he starting to believe?) But he finally agrees to do it when Mora says it's very important to her. (The big dope.)

Taking a boat to Mora's spot, Johnny's starting to get a little paranoid but Mora puts him at ease. They don their gear, but before they go over the side, Mora warns Johnny to stay very close to her. Now, I'm honestly not sure what happens next; the print of the film I have is pretty dark, and the underwater scenes are almost unwatchable. I think Mora takes a knife and slices Johnny's air hose. And as he frantically kicks for the surface, makes it, and pulls himself into the boat, Mora watches from below and swims away, toward deeper water and the open ocean.

Johnny waits for Mora to surface. And waits. And waits... 

Long after her air would have run out, he finally heads back in and holes up in a hotel to hide from the Shore Patrol. Plagued by more bad dreams, including a vision of Mora the mermaid slipping back into the sea, like the crab on the Tarot card, when he wakes up, with Madame Monowhatsowhosits voice still ringing in his ears, he sees an article in the morning's paper about the Amusement Pier celebrating it's 20th Anniversary; including a paragraph mentioning the sideshows. 

Mora the Mermaid is still open for business.

Wanting answers, Johnny sneaks by Murdoch -- whose call to come and see Mora seems different...like it was missing something. (He said ominously.) Entering the tank room, he waits until a few kids clear out then approaches the tank. And when he peers inside, he quickly recoils: Mora is floating on the surface of the tank. She's not moving and obviously dead. And that's the part Murdoch was leaving out -- he was no long saying Mora was a "living" mermaid.

Speaking of Murdoch, he orders Johnny to move away from her and accuses him of murder. Johnny swears he didn't do it. He loved her. But Murdoch has a gun and isn't listening. He takes several shots at Johnny, who tips the tank over, spilling it's contents on to Murdoch and they all land in a heap.

Which leads us to the dénouement. 

The shots alerted two passing patrolmen who haul them both to jail. As the detective escorts Johnny into the interrogation room, Murdoch stops him. Wanting to make a full confession, but only if Johnny is present, he admits that he was the one who killed Mora's other two boyfriends. He swears that everything he did was for the love of Mora. He always saw her as the little orphan girl who was dependent on him. And to keep it that way, he convinced her that she was a Siren to prevent her from loving anyone else. It worked, for a while, but as Mora grew up she wanted her independence. To keep her, he killed the others and convinced the girl that she did it without even realizing it. (Uh, sure. *cough* cough*bullxxxx*)

But his plan worked too well. Mora was going to kill Johnny but couldn't do it. To save him, she cut his air hose, so he couldn't stop her, and tried to return to her "people." And I'm gonna assume she drowned and Murdoch found her washed ashore and tried to make things the way they were by putting her on display since the movie kind of left that part up to us.

Johnny thinks Murdoch had an accomplice, so they ask about the mystery woman in black. Murdoch still claims he doesn't know anything about her, but the detective thinks he's just trying to protect her. (The film is real ambiguous here, too. Who was this lady? Who knows for sure.) With that, Murdoch is hauled off to a cell and the SP's show up to haul Johnny back to base.

The End

Wow, that's a real bummer, dude. Seriously.

Whoa. Whoa. Slow down. Come back. Sit down. No, I haven't turned this website into a poetry appreciation society. I just reprinted the poem, Annabel Lee, by Poe to show how much of a rarity the movie Night Tide really is, whose inspiration was drawn from that poem.

When it came to American International Pictures adaptations of Poe, H.G. Wells, and others, "based on" basically meant, for the most part, based on the title only. Night Tide actually shows some strong inklings to its source material and it's amazing how the haunting refrain of love found, love lost, and then the sometimes fatal consequences of finding it again, especially when your girlfriend might be an octopus monster, comes through in the film.

The story is based on Poe's poem (and at this point in time I think it was a prerequisite for all of AIP's pictures), and a little Greek Mythology, mixed with a little Lovecraftian genetic hiccups and family tree issues. The film is a taught, no-nonsense, mind-bender. Everything supernaturally suggested is given a perfectly rational explanation -- but. But. But. But. Maybe she really is a mermaid who must kill her lover during the full moon? Who was the mystery woman? The movie is just ambiguous enough that it remains a possibility until the end when the truth is revealed. And yes, the ending let me down, too.

Producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tournuer started a whole new horror sub-genre in the '40s for RKO Pictures with movies that were long on mood, atmosphere, and relied a lot on suggestion than actual spooks. They were kind of a Nuevo gothic, bringing old fashioned monster movie trappings, mixed with a little noir, but set them in modern times. 

I find it amazing that all these new horror conventions that Lewton and Tournuer are credited for were, for the most part, the result of budgetary restraints -- also the reason they seldom had a monster.

Many tried to copy the success of that formula; most ultimately failed. Allied Artist made the most failed attempts: see Bert I. Gordon's Tormented as the wonkiest example. And by the time the late '50s and '60s rolled around, all that was left of the genre was whatever gimmick picture William Castle was turning out at the time. Once in a while, though, there'd come along a no-budget thriller, that milked those new conventions for all they were worth. Shot on actual locations, a kind of commando filmmaking, that only adds to a fantasy film's surrealism, these films just gets under your skin and spook you, spook you good, and your left grasping for the exact reasons why.

Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls, I think, is the best example of this. That movie is a delirium to me; a fever dream. As you watch it, especially the first time through, something just isn't quite right about it, and you can't lock the movie down. Strange visuals, weird angles, the illogic logic and just the general starkness of the whole thing is unnerving. Is this real? Is this a dream? What? Then the ending provides all the answers to those doubts and questions, and you just have to tip your hat to the production for being able to tweak you that effectively. I think it's a fantastic film. But that movie has no business being as good as it is.

At American International Pictures, Roger Corman had found another diamond in the rough for Nicholson and Arkoff in writer/director Curtis Harrington. After making a couple of short experimental films, Night Tide was his feature debut, and to be honest, it's pretty impressive; although I'm sure there were more than a few people who were disappointed by it, due to its misleading ad campaign. Technically, Night Tide is another one of those monster-less monster movies. Sure there was the octopus scene, that comes off rather silly and clumsy, but the scene was absolutely necessary for the narrative to work. It just falls a little short of expectations due to budget restraints.

Star Dennis Hopper had plenty of experience as a bit player before Night Tide, but this was his first time as the headliner. Those of you used to his manic performances will be amazed by his subdued performance here. He brings such a naturalness to Johnny, that helps ground the film. It helps make all the weird stuff all the more creepy.

We all know what happened to Hopper. But what about Harrington?

Harrington's next couple of projects were to write scripts around some special-effects footage pilfered by Corman from several Russian science fiction films, Planeta Bur, Nebo zovyot and Mechta Navstrecha. Harrington went on to direct Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet and Queen of Blood, too, consisting mostly of footage pilfered from the Bolsheviks. After that, was a couple of mild-modern gothic thrillers starring Shelley Winters, What's the Matter With Helen and Who Slew Auntie Roo. Then Harrington basically started making made for TV movies, like The Killer Bees and Devil Dog, along with a lot of conventional episodic directing on several programs.

But none of his films managed to match his first effort; though he seemed to be trying really hard to do just that in a lot of them.

If Night Tide has one fault it's that Harrington seems to be so concerned with creating and maintaining the film's moody mood, that the film almost chokes on it. The script and the dialogue suffer just enough that, when coupled with an ending that just sputters out, keeps this film from being a "Cult Classic" in the same breath as Carnival of Souls. It's real close. But not quite.

Posted: 04/16/04. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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